Trip Report: Venturing through Brazil & Peru

[Mattg]

I'm going to be spending three and a half weeks venturing through two amazing countries in South America; Brazil and Peru. If all goes to plan, I will be visiting Belo Horizonte & São Paulo (Brazil) and Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, Puno & Lake Titicaca (Peru). I've really been looking forward to what should be an exciting adventure!

I hate to have to begin this trip report with a negative review, but when I review something I tell it like it is... I promise it will get better from there though!

For those of you following my trip, you'll know that I'd had a nightmare couple of days of travel prior to boarding my flight to South America. To summarise: I was stuck in a snowstorm in Washington DC for most of Thursday, and although I managed to get out that night, I only made it as far as Raleigh. With absolutely no correspondence from American Airlines and with all of the airport hotels at capacity, I had no choice but to sleep overnight at the airport. When I did finally make it to Miami on Friday morning, I had already missed my flight to Belo Horizonte via São Paulo and had to wait more than 12 hours for another flight.

If you want to read the full story, you can find my USA trip report here:
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....p-report-usa-tale-two-57804-3.html#post992933

I'll begin this trip report at Miami International Airport. It's 11pm and I've just boarded my redeye flight direct to Belo Horizonte with American Airlines.


Flight: AA991 Miami - Belo Horizonte
Boeing 767-300 | N359AA
Departure time: 23:40
Arrival time: 10:55 (+1 day)

This was my first time flying long-haul with American Airlines. I was lucky enough to snag an exit row seat (21A) for the 8+ hour flight, but even with that my first impressions were not good. The aircraft was an ancient Boeing 767 at more than 25 years old... and it felt like it, too. There was no in-flight entertainment other than an American soap which played on the main screens for the first couple of hours of the flight (only). Even if I was interested in that kind of thing, I wouldn't have been able to hear it anyway as the sound system wasn't working properly.

The flight was around one-third full but there was a man in the seat next to me. As we took off we got a very nice view of the city lights of Miami but that quickly disappeared as we headed out over the ocean and en-route to Brazil. The flight attendant in the jump seat near me didn't look like he really wanted to be there and he was clutching his venti cup of Starbucks coffee all through takeoff.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos during the flight as I was too tired, so I'll have to rely on words to describe my experience.

The seat belt sign never went off, but after a while people began to get up anyway and snag an empty row which they could lie down and sleep on. I left it too late and by the time I got up all of the spare sets of seats were taken, usually by only one or two people.

Dinner was served around an hour after takeoff and a choice of chicken or pasta was offered. The meal was nothing to write home about but not awful either.

Two hours after takeoff the lights went out and many passengers were already asleep. I have difficulty sleeping on airplanes at the best of times, especially in an upright economy seat. Even though I was exhausted and had an exit row seat with more than enough legroom, I found it very difficult to get to sleep. I think I slept a total of 2-3 hours on and off during the flight.

The sun eventually came up as we were flying somewhere over Northern Brazil but the cabin remained dark for the rest of the flight as every window shade was closed. Most stayed closed, even during and after landing.

Around an hour before landing, passengers who were awake (around half) were served a very basic breakfast, along with tea and coffee.

The service throughout the flight was just okay. When we landed in Belo Horizonte, the same flight attendant was holding yet another Starbucks cup.

Possibly one of the only good things about the flight was that it got me to the destination I actually needed to get to, and on time. Considering my track record over the previous few days, that was something I really appreciated.


The old bird which brought me to Brazil.


If my experience is consistent with American Airline's usual long-haul offering, then I wouldn't want to fly with them again. Perhaps it is a different story on their newer 777 aircraft, but these old 767s are used frequently on routes between North and South America, as well as trans-Atlantic flights. For example, this aircraft had just done a Paris - New York trip on the day of my flight. In my opinion, the flight was not up to the standard I would expect from a "premium" airline. I probably wouldn't put it in the "worst flight ever" basket but it wasn't great.


Despite the somewhat lengthy process of getting a visa to come to Brazil, I had no problems at the border. I don't think I was asked a single question and no-one even checked my customs declaration card (which I still have). Be warned though, you must get a visa before you travel. If you turn up at the Brazilian border without a valid visa you will be denied entry to the country. Visas are not given on arrival.

Their was a lot of construction going on at the airport in preparation for the World Cup.


Construction work at CNF.


Relieved to finally be in Brazil, my nightmare 3 days of travel were over and thankfully, things went well and truly up from there!

 

[Mattg]

I was staying for the next week with some Brazilian friends who I met in Germany last year. When I told them I would be doing this world trip, they invited me to visit and stay with them. It was an offer too good to refuse!

Although my friends are newly engaged, they still live with their respective parents (although they are hoping to move out soon) so I spent the week living in a Brazilian family environment. Only one of my friends speaks English, so it was quite interesting trying to communicate but we got by on occasions where we didn't have a translator with hand gestures and my very limited Portuguese skills. (Well, maybe skills is overplaying it a little... more like knowledge of a few words, put together in incomplete and probably incomprehendible sentences.)

Everyone was extremely hospitable and seemed to enjoy having a visitor from overseas. Apparently I was the first foreigner to visit them. My friend's mum likes to cook as well, and every meal was like a feast full of different cuisine from Minas Gerais (the state in Brazil where Belo Horizonte is located).

If I stayed for any significant length of time, I would probably leave fat and engaged. Why engaged, you might ask? Firstly, because the women in Brazil are so beautiful, and secondly because everyone seemed to be trying to set me up with one girl or another at every possible opportunity. (I was only there for one week though, so none of these schemes eventuated.)

Both of my friends took time off work so they could show me around and make sure I enjoyed my stay. I most certainly did, and there was never a dull moment.

To be honest, I'd never even heard of Belo Horizonte until my friends invited me there. To give you some background, it's the third largest city in Brazil with a population of over 5 million people in the greater metropolitan area. That's more people than in the whole of Queensland. It's located in the state of Minas Gerais and lies somewhere in the middle of Rio de Janiero/São Paulo and Brasilia.

Belo Horizonte seems to be quite underrated in terms of a being a tourist destination, and I don't think it should be. It's not really a touristy city, and I kind of liked that because I got to experience Brazil as it is for the people who live there, not as it is made out to be for the tourists. There are certainly plenty of things to do, but most are aimed at locals rather than overseas tourists. There are two flights per day between Belo Horizonte and Miami but I believe these are mostly used by people who live in Belo Horizonte. Most of the people on my flight were Brazilian.


On Sunday we visited a city called Ouro Preto, around two hours away by car. This was a lovely little historic city which I guess you could say is the Brazilian equivalent of an Italian hill town. We visited a local flea market, some museums and even an abandoned gold mine, which I doubt would pass Australian OH&S regulations (but that makes it all the more fun!).


The main square in Outo Preto.


A local market

Throughout the week we did a fair bit of sightseeing in Belo Horizonte itself. Some highlights were the Praça da Liberdade (Freedom Square) and surrounding cultural buildings, Mercado Central (Central Market), Praça do Papa (Pope Square) and the nearby lookout & the Pampulha district.


Overlooking Belo Horizonte


Counting down to the World Cup in Freedom Square

On the Freedom Square stood a countdown clock to the World Cup. When I visited there were 115 days to go. I have my doubts about whether Brazil will be ready for the World Cup. Even though they had seven years' notice, they have fallen way behind in terms of getting the stadiums ready and building the required infrastructure in general. Last week, the construction of the stadium in Curitiba fell so short of FIFA's deadline that they threatened to cancelled all games that were to be played there. (This has since been resolved.) Hopefully I am proven wrong and the country is able to pull off a miracle. After all, these things usually do work themselves out in the end.

Delays in building infrastructure are not a problem exclusive to the World Cup, but rather an ongoing problem in Brazil. For example, Belo Horizonte has just one metro line. There has been talk about building more lines for more than 20 years, but this is still just talk.

If you follow world news you will probably know that there have been protests from time to time in Brazil over recent years. As far as I understand there are a couple of reasons for this. The first is related to the World Cup; FIFA has made a lot of demands which are not necessarily in Brazil's interests, e.g. building stadiums which weren't needed, meaning that public funds were redirected to unnecessary causes, at the expense of things the country actually needs, such as better non-soccer-related infrastructure and health care. The second reason is government corruption in general; despite Brazil's impressive economic growth and development over the past few decades it would seem that many politicians are corrupt and are more interested in passing laws to raise their own salaries than, say, improving the public education system. (This is not necessarily unique to Brazil.) Like Scandinavia, taxes are very high in Brazil, however unlike Scandinavia, the public don't see much their taxes being put to good use. Millions of people in Brazil live in favelas (slums) health care could be improved, the country is way behind in building the infrastructure it needs and the public education system is of a generally poor quality. This is not an exhaustive list. If government corruption ended, I believe the country would really have a lot of potential, but in the short term there is no obvious solution.


Back to my trip and on Tuesday I was taken to a place called Inhotim (pronounced in-yot-chim), around an hour from Belo Horizonte. This was possibly the only place I visited all week which seemed touristy. It was essentially a very large botanical garden filled with lots of interactive modern art exhibits. I found it interesting and a little bit weird... It sounds funny to say this, but possibly the best exhibit was the "cocaine experience". Yes, you did read that correctly. There were five different rooms which each aimed to recreate a different sensation associated with cocaine. My favourite was the room where you lie in a hammock listening to Jimi Hendrix music; closely followed by a room full of balloons. I'm not really sure what the purpose of the exhibit was, but we left thinking "gee, cocaine seems pretty fun!" You wouldn't get something like this in Australia.


No trip to Brazil would be complete without seeing a local soccer game and on Wednesday night we went to see a Cruzeiro v Guarani game at Mineirão Stadium, which will be used during the World Cup. This was actually a fairly insignificant game and the crowd consisted of 7,000 people. Of those people there were less than a dozen Guarani fans. You could tell because they had to sit in a designated area which was almost completely empty. It was quite an experience. My friend is a Cruzeiro fan so we sat with the rest of their fans. After kick off the fans started to make a lot of noise, and fan song after fan song was led by trumpets and drums. The fans were up singing, dancing and waving their Cruzeiro flags. I wondered how long this would all go on for. The whole game, apparently. It got even more exuberant when Cruzeiro scored a goal. In the end they won convincingly, but the fans were complaining because the score was "only" 2-0. They were lamenting that Cruzeiro's star players had had a lazy game and that they should have won by more. There's no pleasing some people!



There are two main rival teams in Belo Horizonte, Cruzeiro and Atlético. The rivalry is so intense, that when these teams play against each other, only one teams' fans are allowed in the stadium. This rule came into being after people were killed in violent clashes between supporters.

The next day we did a tour of the stadium. It was conducted in Portuguese, but at least I got to see what goes on behind the scenes and walk onto the grass.

 

[Mattg]

We visited the Pampulha District on Thursday evening. Among the things to see there were a lake, a crazy-looking church designed by Oscar Niemeyer (the architect who designed Brasilia) and the most deserted fairground I've ever seen.


The Church of St Francis of Assisi

For dinner that night we went to a local market near Mineirão Stadium where we ate local cuisine while watching live Brazilian music and dancing. That was pretty cool!



On my last day in Belo Horizonte we had a family get-together (while I was not staying with my family it almost felt like I was after a week) and a delicious Brazilian barbeque. My friend's dad was very keen to show me all the different types of meat and how they were cooked. I also learnt how to make caipirinhas, a popular Brazilian drink. You never know when that might come in handy!

It was sad to have to say goodbye but all good things must come to an end! What an incredible week it had been! On Saturday morning I flew to São Paulo for the weekend. I'll tell you about that when I get time to write about it.

 

[drron]

Looking forward to this report but particularly Peru as hopefully we will be there next year.
The only thing I know about Belo Horizonte is that the infamous francophobe Tony Hancock has been there and was in love with the Formule 1,or something like that.

And those AA 767s and 757s really are not good.Fortunately our flights in the 757s have only been up to 4 hours and our only 767 international flight FRA-ORD was in daylight hours and we were in J.However the 772s are way ahead of the 767s and hopefully this year will get a 773 flight which is meant to be even better.But I feel an equipment change is on the cards.

 

[Mattg]

Flight: JJ3345 Belo Horizonte - São Paulo
Airbus A320 | PR-TYE
Departure time: 10:35 (Actual: 10:30)
Arrival time: 11:55 (Actual: 12:20)

I wasn't looking forward to leaving BH, but I was looking forward to checking out Brazil's TAM Airlines, particularly ahead of them joining oneworld.

The airport was still noisy and the carpark a bit of a dust bowl due to all the construction work. Check-in in Belo Horizonte was fairly easy and only a few minutes after arriving at the airport I headed through security. I started to take my iPad and liquids out of my bag and the security agent said that that wouldn't be necessary. I wasn't in the United States any more!

Boarding was called early. The flight was quite full as the aircraft had been downgraded just hours before the flight from an A321 to an A320. I made my way to my allocated seat, 28A (which was now near the back of the plane due to the aircraft swap) and found a man sitting there. He didn't seem to speak English so I told a flight attendant who also didn't speak English. I would have thought some level of English was a requirement to work for an airline.


The A320 at the gate in Belo Horizonte.

Eventually I got comfortable in my allocated seat. The plane seemed very new. The flight left the gate five minutes early and took off towards the south before performing a series of left turns, making for some nice views over Belo Horizonte and the airport.


Belo Horizonte Airport (CNF) from the air.

All announcements were made only in Portuguese so I didn't understand any of them. The safety video had English subtitles but I couldn't read them as they were too small. Despite the lack of English on-board, the sign in the the bathroom requesting that passengers use their towel to wipe the sink for the next passenger was in perfect English, including correct capitalisation - a feat not even American or Australian carriers seem capable of.

A complimentary small bag of crackers was served along with a choice of beverages. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The only in-flight entertainment was a radio in the armrest which had a selection of mainly Brazilian music.

We seemed to spend a lot of the flight turning, and when I had a look at the flight path online afterwards it became obvious why. I'll post it at the end.

We were running a few minutes behind schedule as we approached Guarulhos Airport in São Paulo. The passengers were caught by surprise about 20 seconds from landing when the engines suddenly began to roar and we began to climb again. I still have absolutely no idea why the captain initiated a go-around... he did make an announcement about five minutes later but I didn't understand a word of it.

We got some pretty nice views as we did a circuit before our next landing attempt, which was successful.


A small part of São Paulo, as seen from the plane.

Guarulhos Airport is quite easy to navigate but after collecting my suitcase I now had the challenge of getting into the city.

Overall the short domestic flight was pleasant and I would fly TAM again. Hopefully next time I'll also be able to collect Qantas points and maybe even understand the announcements, too.

Finally, as promised, the flight map:

 

[RB]

A good read. Looking forward to the rest of your adventures

 

[docjames]

Great TR. Enjoying hearing about Brazil and looking forward to Peru.

Agree about the AA767s.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Great trip review.

Loved reading about all those " clapped out bangers" ( Aka AA/LAN ancient aircraft.... Sounds like QF's few remaining non-refurbished 747's must be luxurious in comparison )

Do any Sandeman's tours exist in Brazil?

 

[Mattg]

Great trip review.

Loved reading about all those " clapped out bangers" ( Aka AA/LAN ancient aircraft.... Sounds like QF's few remaining non-refurbished 747's must be luxurious in comparison )

Do any Sandeman's tours exist in Brazil?

I'd take an unrefurbished Qantas 747 over an old AA plane any day! As an added bonus it might even come with friendly Australian crew, as opposed to rude/apathetic American crew too.

No Sandeman's tour in Brazil (yet) but there did seem to be another company with a similar business model in São Paulo. Unfortunately they only run four tours per week and none of them fitted into my schedule. Definitely nothing like that in Belo Horiztone though, it's not really a tourist destination.

 

[Major]

Enjoying the read and the photos

 

[Mattg]

São Paulo is a crazily massive but vibrant city. I'd heard stories from people who had been stuck in so much traffic that it took four hours to get between the airport and the city. With that in mind, I decided not to take a taxi, but to take the Airport Bus Service to Tietê bus station, scheduled as being only 40 minutes from the airport, followed the metro (subway) the rest of the way. I had to wait more than half an hour for the next bus but when I did get on board I found it to be very comfortable. The bus was 36.50 reals and the metro was 3 reals (all up ~$20).


The bus at Guarulhos Airport.

As it was a Saturday, the traffic actually wasn't that bad and the trip to the metro station took only 25 minutes. I wouldn't count on this, though - the traffic is often crazy, especially on weekdays! I was extra careful on the train with my belongings but didn't have any problems with pickpocketers or anything like that. I made it to my hotel safely in a little over two hours, which was better than I was expecting.

Unfortunately I was in town a little too early for the official Carnaval celebrations but luckily there were some pre-Carnaval celebrations (not to be confused with everyday Brazilian life!) going on that weekend.

A friend from São Paulo recommended I stay at a particular hostel which was supposed to be very good (and it was). There I met a bunch of other people who also wanted to check out the celebrations, so five of us headed to the Pinheiros district and found a few street parties happening.

It wasn't quite like the pictures I've seen of the Carnaval in Rio but there was a pretty good atmosphere nonetheless. There were a lot of people, beer and music... and a lot of cars which annoyed the s**t out of everyone by trying to drive through the crowds of people partying on the street. We must have been out for several hours already when a freak monsoonal downpour sent everyone running indoors and flooded the streets temporarily.


A street party is São Paulo.

I had spent the entire Saturday morning hungover from Friday night and promised myself an early night. Being a Saturday night in a hostel, that never happened. Not that I'm complaining - I met heaps of people and we had a great time at the hostel! And I think I only paid for one drink that night... they just kept coming my way and I kept drinking them. Did I mention already that I liked Brazil a lot?

Feeling hungover (again!) I had to get up fairly early on Sunday morning to take a tour which I had already booked. It was a city bike tour with a company called Hey! São Paulo. The reason I went with this company is because it was the only one I could find in the top 20 on tripadvisor who had a tour running on a Sunday morning and didn't cost an arm and a leg. It turned out to be a great choice!

I was joined by a man from Malaysia and another from the United States. Our guide/company owner Renan was amazing! He showed us all of the sights in the historic downtown area and taught us a lot about the city. I originally had reservations about riding a bike in a city like São Paulo but actually I felt very safe. Here's some of the sights we saw:


Se Square


Luz Station (remind you of anywhere?)


The view from the 26th floor of a building downtown. Guess which building in this photo I consider to be the ugliest in the city...

 

[Mattg]

And some of the street art:




The guide warned us to look out for broken glass/police etc. when we entered one area as there had been another protest the night before which had turned quite violent. The protests (over the World Cup, I believe) began peacefully but turned violent when the police began to use force to disperse the crowds. Ironically, this triggered a new, and much more violent protest against police brutality. To quote one of the locals, "São Paulo is a democracy on paper only..."


I was a little surprised by the amount of homeless people in the city. Pretty much on every street corner, park bench, under every tree, and so on, you would find a homeless person sleeping. At one point we entered a park and although it looked empty at first glance, if you looked closer you could see that there were actually half a dozen homeless people living there.


After the tour I grabbed some lunch from one of many Japanese food stalls on Liberdade Square and headed back to my hostel, although only to have a shower and check out before my flight to Lima.



I would have liked to have stayed longer in São Paulo. I guess I was lucky to have got any time there as I was originally only going to be there a few hours in transit, but was able to change my flight to one the day before, meaning I had a night there.

The city isn't for everyone, and if you don't like large, crowded cities then possibly you won't like it, but I certainly enjoyed my short stay. If I had an extra day or two, I would have liked to take a tour of the Paulista Avenue area and do a day trip to a coffee plantation. These are just two of countless possibilities in a city which, like New York, never sleeps.

 

[Mattg]

I returned to Guarulhos Airport for my Sunday evening flight more or less the same way that I had come from there. I had a bit of difficulty locating the Airport Bus Service ticket office in Tietê, particularly when I couldn't find anyone who speaks English. When I did, I was told that the 36.50 real fare would cost 38 reals. The difference is less than $1 but I have no idea where the extra money was going. Despite the warnings about all the traffic, I had a very smooth run and made it to Guarulhos in record time - just under 2 hours from hotel to airport.

I had allowed extra time to make it to the airport so I had about a four hour wait before the scheduled departure time. I checked in and headed straight through immigration and security. The immigration officer who stamped my passport seemed to be doing a half-assed job as he had one earphone in his ear and was watching a movie on his smart phone while processing passengers. I really wasn't in the United States anymore!

My flights last week pushed me over the line and I now have gold status with Qantas/oneworld sapphire. (Woohoo! ) I thought I would take this opportunity to try out a lounge in São Paulo. I couldn't find a LAN lounge but there was an Admirals Club. I showed my boarding pass to the lady, but it hadn't been updated to reflect my new status and was still showing "oneworld ruby". I explained that I had only been sapphire for a week so didn't have a card and for some reason my ticket hadn't updated, but she didn't want to let me in. I suggested she could contact Qantas but she just said "We're American Airlines, not Qantas" followed by "I'm sorry sir, but I won't be able to allow you in today." So much for my new status privileges! I would just have to wait until next time.

The Australian women's rugby sevens team happened to be passing through Guarulhos Airport at the same time. The Australian (and in some cases Kiwi) accents and Qantas branding all over their uniforms caught my attention.

For the long wait I had to "slum" it (note that I am being sarcastic here ) in the terminal. The three hours until the flight was supposed to begin boarding came and went, but the aircraft had not actually arrived yet. By the scheduled departure time, the aircraft had only just arrived, but it seemed to take ages before we could board. Most passengers got up and started forming a queue before the plane had even arrived and must have been standing there for an hour.


Flight: LA2766 São Paulo - Lima
Boeing 767-300 | CC-BDC
Departure time: 19:40 (Actual: 20:55)
Arrival time: 22:55 (Actual: 23:40)

My first impressions on board LAN Airlines were very good. The aircraft seemed quite new and was infinitely better than the American 767 I'd flown on the week before. The flight was almost completely full and I was in a window seat near the back of the plane. Most passengers seemed to have a pillow/blanket/headphones on their seat but for some reason mine did not. I have a feeling my neighbour stole it but I didn't say anything. Seat-back IFE was available and there was a reasonably large range of different TV shows/movies/games/etc. My only real complaint was that it had poor user interface, but it sure beats American's offering (i.e. nothing).

After boarding we seemed to wait for ages before pushback, which eventually occurred 1 hour and 15 minutes behind schedule. As we took off from São Paulo I realised just how incredibly big the city is. The lights seemed to go on forever and we were above the high-level cloud before we had even cleared the city boundaries.

Dinner was served on this flight and was actually one of the better airline meals I've eaten. I had fish with rice, which came with a bread roll and nice dessert of some sort. I also got a glass of wine. My only complaint was the amount of (i.e. lack of) food - I was still hungry afterwards. Even thought the flight was more than five hours, this was the only food served.



The lights were switched off after the meal service and I barely saw the flight attendants again until we began our decent into Lima.

There was a lot more turbulence than usual on this flight. It seemed to come and go for the whole flight and the seat belt sign was turned on and off about 10 times.

We approached Lima over the ocean to the west of the city, making for some nice views of the city lights. I can only imagine how spectacular that would have looked during the day. We made up a little bit of time in-flight and landed 45 minutes late. It took around half an hour to clear immigration and customs.

The flight was fairly enjoyable and thankfully LAN's customer service on board was a lot better than on the ground and over the phone (but that's a story for another time)!

I was supposed to meet a driver at the airport which I booked through my hotel. When I exited into the international arrivals area there must have been hundreds of people, including many dozens holding signs with names on them.



I was trying to find one with my name but didn't have any luck. I thought that perhaps the driver had given up and left because my flight was delayed. After calling the hotel I eventually found someone at the back of the crowd holding a sign with my middle name on top of my first name, as well as the name of my hotel spelt incorrectly. The driver spoke no English but seemed to be the right one and he brought me to my hotel safely. By this point it was 1.30am, or 3.30am in the time zone I had just come from.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

View attachment 25657
Luz Station (remind you of anywhere?)

Hmmm..... Not really sure..... I think I remember a building that appeared to be similar in appearance in Sydney once before

 

[Mattg]

View attachment 25657
Luz Station (remind you of anywhere?)

Hmmm..... Not really sure..... I think I remember a building that appeared to be similar in appearance in Sydney once before

The tour guide said he thought it was the same design as Flinders Street station in Melbourne, minus the front facade.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

The tour guide said he thought it was the same design as Flinders Street station in Melbourne, minus the front facade.

Now you mention it, I can see the resemblance to Flinders Street station.

Minus the clock tower, the building also looks strikingly similar to the QVB in Sydney I thought.

Yoy must not be far off from heading off to somewhere new on your grand trip?

 

[Mattg]

Yoy must not be far off from heading off to somewhere new on your grand trip?

I'm still in Peru right now but heading back to the USA on Tuesday! I'm hoping to update this thread sometime today if I get time.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

I'm still in Peru right now but heading back to the USA on Tuesday! I'm hoping to update this thread sometime today if I get time.

Nice work, can't wait to read more!

 

[Mattg]

I had just one full day in Lima so decided to do one of those city bus tours. The tour was conducted in English and Spanish, which I didn't particularly like because it meant the guide spent half the tour speaking in Spanish, meaning I spent half the tour bored. Her Spanish was also a lot better than her English, and I have a feeling that she gave a lot more information in the Spanish version of her blurbs.

The places we visited were very interesting though. As much as I hate to use clichés, Lima is a city of contrasts. Some people are really wealthy and live alongside others who are very poor. The tour began with a drive through the wealthy part of town with embassies and nice houses etc. I don't really know why we visited there - I guess it's what they want the tourists to think Lima is like. Afterwards we headed into the historic parts of downtown Lima, stopping at the Plaza Mayor and the Historic Centre of Lima.


Plaza Mayor


Historic centre of Lima

The highlight of the tour was a visit to the Monastery of San Francisco and the Catacombs. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it was very interesting. It was like an underground Inkan temple. I wouldn't recommend visiting though if you are claustrophobic or if skulls and bones from hundreds of years ago would freak you out.


The Monastery of San Francisco from the outside - the Catacombs are within the church complex.

We experienced Lima traffic at its finest on the way back to Miraflores. I had a Peruvian lunch after the tour at a restaurant near Kennedy Park (which for some reason is full of stray cats). While I was eating a young Peruvian boy who I would guess was around 10 years old came inside the restaurant playing some sort of musical instrument (fairly badly). Of course, after a couple of minutes he then came around asking for money. I think it's a little sad that children are doing this. He didn't look like he wanted to be there, rather like he was from a poor family. And why wasn't he in school? It was lunchtime on a Monday...

I found it a little difficult to get around the city on my own. Either you had to take a bus, a taxi or walk. I wouldn't have had a clue how to catch a bus in Lima so was restricted to taxis and walking for most of the day. There is no subway or train network in Lima, which is surprising for a city of its size. Perhaps this has something to do with the amount of earthquakes the city gets.

How many Peruvians does it take to operate a bus? Apparently two; one to drive the bus and one to stand in the doorway while the bus is moving with his body half outside the vehicle while shouting and waving his arms frantically.


I was lucky enough to meet a guy who lives in Lima when I was in Washington DC. When I told him I was visiting he offered to show me around on Monday evening. He took me to Larcomar Mall right before sunset and the views were just incredible:

 

[Mattg]

My friend was keen for me to try as much local food as possible so he bought me all sorts of delicious street food. I also tried my first pisco sour on Monday evening - this is a Peruvian grape drink with a high alcoholic content. Of course, I didn't realise this until after I had drank a full one.

Unfortunately I woke up the next morning with food poisoning, but I can't pinpoint the exact culprit. I've been generally pretty lucky so far and to be honest, I'm actually surprised I haven't got sick more often on this trip.

When I got back to the hotel, many of the lights in my room weren't working so I had to get at least some of the bulbs changed so that I could see. Another riddle for you: How many Peruvians does it take to change a light bulb? Well in this case two, and even then the outcome was questionable. The rather large man at reception came up to my room with a new bulb but it was not a simple task to change it. It took both of us twenty minutes working together, and by the time the bulb was changed there was glass and parts of the ceiling all over the floor of my room, and the man from reception had injured his leg. The light fitting was kind of dangling dangerously at this point too, but the light bulb at least worked now. I look back and I'm still not sure how all that happened...


On Tuesday morning I flew to the city of Cuzco, the gateway to Machu Picchu. I booked with LAN because of their schedule; there are a lot of airlines which fly between Lima and Cuzco but only LAN had a flight from Juliaca to Lima on the evening I needed to travel, so I was kind of left with no choice. The trouble with LAN though was that they wanted to charge me 5 times what they charge the locals because I am a foreigner. When I searched for these two domestic flights (Lima - Cuzco and Juliaca - Lima) on LAN's Peruvian website (with the help of Google translate as the website was only available in Spanish) it quoted a price of US$121.05, round-trip. The only problem was that I was not allowed to buy this fare unless I was a Peruvian resident. If I was unable to prove residency I would be charged a penalty of US$177 and/or be denied boarding. When I had a look for the exact same flights on the Australian website, the price was US$624. That's a difference of 500%! Unbelievable. I would have booked with Peruvian Airlines or Star Peru in protest, but as I said only LAN had a schedule which worked for me. I think I started a thread about this price discrimination on AFF at the time and someone suggested I book on the USA version of LAN's website. I ended up doing this and paid US$359 - better than the Aussie price but still exorbitant. I hate it when I know I've been ripped off...

By the way, if anyone is going to Peru in the near future here's a quick tip for next time: Fly Peruvian Airlines or Star Peru if you are doing a simple Lima - Cuzco round trip. Their schedule is less frequent but they are perfectly reputable and charge the same prices to locals and foreigners. You can usually book a return trip for around $100.